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11 nights in Cyprus has been just what the doctor ordered! I’ve managed to string a few decent sessions together and feel more confident about stepping it up when I’m back home.I’ve finally finished my third course of antibiotics. No more pills please!

Hopefully my final piece of bad luck came yesterday. I had a puncture whilst doing hill reps on my bike. However to my amazement a local Cypriot who was sat on his front porch saw me struggling and came to the rescue. He didn’t speak a word of English but managed to send me on my way. Unfortunately it was flat again ten minutes later and I had to run the rest pushing my bike (good transition training!).

I’m looking forward to getting back on my bike and practicing running off the bike and the all important transitions which are still pretty new to me but can cost you a lot of time.

As a half decent runner I thought I would try my luck at duathlon. For those of you that don’t know, this is a run, bike then a further run. Generally there are 2 distances, the standard or the sprint. As a relative cycling novice I decided to go with the sprint.

In October I took part in my 2nd sprint duathlon at Oulton Park race track. The distances were run 4.3km, cycle 21.5km then run a further 4.3km. I’d learnt from my first attempt at Clumber Park in March that a lot of time could be lost in transition so I had practised to see if I could save some time there.

Conditions were perfect, about 10 degrees and blue skies. After a fast first run I found myself heading down the pit lane and sprinting towards my bike. The real pros have their cycle shoes already attached, however I hobbled along in mine then jumped onto my bike and I was away.

The Oulton Park circuit has beautiful smooth tarmac however deceivingly undulating. As I’m only just starting out, I had a normal road bike and just pedalled as hard as I could but were inevitably passed by fast powerful guys on their time trial bikes!

After another decent transition, I was happy to be back running again and I smashed my way back through the field running past some of the guys who’d just overtaken me on the bike! My second run was really strong and put me right up the field.

2 weeks or so later I had the confirmation that I’d done it. I’d qualified to represent GB age group 35-39 in Soria, Spain at the European Sprint Duathlon Championships!

Owen James at ALLforYOU is now open for business in the Tickhill area of Doncaster. He has 16 years of experience and said, “Its not until I get my hands on people that they realise just how much tension has built up.” He also said that this can accumulate over years of repetitive movements both at work and in sport leading to headaches, poor posture, aching muscles and discomfort. “The body has a tendency to compensate for the imbalance which may in tern lead to additional problems.”

The time has come to stand up and be counted. Over a year ago, I decided that I was going to commit myself fully into racing another marathon. Abingdon in Oxfordshire was the chosen race. Not only is it said to be flat and fast but unlike the big city marathons, it is limited to just 1100 entrants which means less congestion and more focus on running!

My plan was to train progressively harder over a 23 week period and hope to lose to weight during the final ‘run in’ in order to make running faster at pace more efficient.

I’m inside the last week of training now which involved nothing more than easy running. I have lost about 7lbs now in as many weeks and its time to get serious.

Just 3 days after my massive pb at the Windmill Half Marathon and I was back in Doncaster and hoping some of the weekends speed would rub off on me over the shorter distance!

This 2 and a half lap course was undulating but fast at the same time. I had run this event before in 17:04 and 17:08 and hope that a sub 17 was on the cards but by how much?

The first mile was fast as it was more downhill, leaving 2 harder laps with as many ups as downs!

Towards the end, 3 Doncaster AC lads powered past me and I feared the worst that my legs were feeling the effects of Sundays half marathon. However I dug in and managed to pip one of them in the final straight. It turned out that I ran miles 2 and 3 in exactly the same time (5:24.mile)

With Marathon training for October Abingdon Marathon well under way, it was time to test myself over half that distance to see how much I’d progressed with my new super training schedule!

This was the 2nd year of the event up in Lytham near Blackpool and was apparently a flat, fast course.
My previous personal best of 1:17.54 was set back in October at the Perkins Great Eastern run. I knew I was in shape to beat this but didn’t know how much by.

We gathered on the start line and shot off around Fairhaven lake. One superfast guy shot off and we would on;y see him at the finish. That left 3 of us jostling for position as we headed back along the coast towards the windmill. We dropped one guy after 2 miles miles and I then ran the whole race with the guy who’d pip me at the end into 3rd place. There was a steady breeze with would swing our pace my 15/20 secs a mile in each direction. Nevertheless I would stick to my HR of 176,177. I was thankful for the guy who really paced my round as I tucked in behind him and tried to shelter from the wind.

I knew I was running well and completely running on the edge. It wasn’t until I saw the time on the clock counting up that I was to put in my final sprint knocking a huge 2 mins and 5 secs off my best to finish 3rd place with 1:15.49.

This was to be a more scenic off-road 10k through Sandal Beat woods and trail paths. I was looking to run hard and test myself after a huge block of track training and new increased mileage of 70 miles/week.

There was a field of around 240 runners but as we got away the usual suspect of Gav Felton and Chris Cotton flew off with me in hot pursuit! Their initial pace was too much for me so I settled into my own rhythm and left them to it. As we ran into the woods, my garmin was showing all sorts of paces as the GPS singnals were scrambled. I didn’t panic as I was still able to monitor my ‘effort’ through my HR monitor readings. 177,178,177 and it was feeling comfortably hard.

With around 2 miles or so to go I seemed to be catching 2nd place (Chris) and so pushed on and found that I’d caught him with just over a mile to go. He shouted to me that I could catch 1st place, so I increased my effort further and did just that with about 800m to go. I was on a high and as we turned into the rugby club I managed to put in a final sprint and managed to win in 35:00.

This is probably the best tactically run race and best finish to date.

I entered the race this year with a plan of running round with Zipvit Sports Brand Manager. However as the event drew closer is was apparent that due to illness he was no longer going to be able to take part. This was not a problem as I had done the training and if I’m honest was itching to have a go at seeing what I could do. The only spanner in the works was the fact that I’d have to start back in pen 3 which would mean that it would be a slow start.

Marathon day approached and conditions were ideal with only a slight breeze. I went straight to the front of pen 3 but this didn’t really help matters as I could see runners ahead of me who I’d finish at least more than half an hour ahead of.

After a frustrating first half of trying to pass the slower runners I could see the 3hr pacer ahead. However it was not until around mile 18 that I was able to get past the ‘wall’ of runners that had accumulated behind them!
Once past I was able to up my pace a run more freely.

Over the last 7km the following stats speak for themselves

I passed 348 runners
Only 1 passed me!

I finished with ‘a sprint’ and with a smile on my face.
It was the easiest marathon I’d run and the most enjoyable